(A/N: Out on time for once, hell yeah. Surprising given how much fucking hell the bank is giving me to get my money, but it helps that my internet's been too shit to reliably play Pokken. Rent's becoming extremely late, but I already have up to a good chunk of chapter twenty written, so if I get evicted I'll upload those to google docs. I'm publishing what I have or I'm gonna die trying—and of course it's all happening on my period.
No one tells you that, either. I was told of any potential side effect with more than a point zero one percent chance of happening to start hrt, but NOT that estrogen makes you try to clear out a uterus you don't have. Unbelievable. Best decision I ever made.
Ok now on to the chapter)
"Tomorrow
Things won't be the same
Tomorrow
Life would be a different game"
—"Tomorrow" from Wake Up…It's Tomorrow by Strawberry Alarm Clock
Compromise, the lifeblood of relationships. Between any two (or more) people, it's inevitable that one's needs will step on the paws of someone else's. Such arrangements are never easy, but they're very well manageable. All that's necessary is patience, understanding, and a genuine care for each other. With all three, it's often even possible to find a solution that not only leaves no one ignored, but meet everyone's needs.
"Right," Max agreed to he wasn't sure what. He very much needed—and wanted!—to listen to the conversation, but he couldn't focus on it in the slightest. His mind drifted and stuck to the once crumpled (now neatly folded) envelope in the hidden compartment of his bag. He actually had a chance to send it. Somehow. To think, he'd actually met Mew in a dream.
Despite his stunning and intelligent additions of "right", "sure", "uh-huh", and "oh", the conversation had hit a lull. He shook his eyes off the ceiling and looked around the circle. Ah, they were all staring at him. Again. And they all looked visibly annoyed. Again. They must have noticed he wasn't really paying all that much attention.
Again.
"Max," Neb grumbled. "How am I supposed to believe you're going to follow through on any of this if you aren't listening to any of it?"
"I—," Max started, but then he noticed Neb's eyes daring him to finish the lie, "—'m sorry." He pushed off his belly to sit up (one paw pulling and keeping his bag close). "I'm trying, it's just, ah." Looking away, he brought a paw up to scratch the back of his neck. "Distracted." Even Cori, who'd generally tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, rolled their eyes at that one. "B-because of a dream."
"Another one?" Eleos asked. It raised a brow, but kept narrow eyes on him—was it suspicious? "Your soul remained with you last night, though." That much surprised Max, but he realized halfway into his surprise that he needed to not be surprised by that information and forced a neutral expression. "Was it merely an upsetting dream?"
"Y-yeah, well, not upsetting," Max said, eyes firmly on the floor of Neb's place in desperate hope for anything worth looking at.
"Well, shouldn't we talk about it?" Cori asked. Max perked up, wanting to avoid that but not having a good reason why. Seeing his obvious reticence, Cori rolled their eyes and mumbled, "Maybe then, you'll actually focus."
Max cursed himself—even sweet little Cori was fed up with him, now. "Well, I don't know," he said, still trying to think of a good reason to keep it to himself. Not knowing why he wanted to keep it to himself didn't really help him there. "It's a bit weird."
"Just say it was a sex dream," Neb sighed.
"No!" Max shouted. His cheeks spouted off a shower of sparks. "It wasn't—I—it was, look!" He had his paw open and up, ready to play along with his explanation, but he'd forgotten to prepare one. Worse, he realized the more he stumbled with nothing to say, the more he made Neb look right. She had to know what she was doing, and a frustrated glance at her expression convinced Max she very much did.
Max groaned and fell back in defeat. She'd set any other option ablaze with that. His paws were tied. He scrunched up half into a ball and mumbled, "I met Mew."
Neb stared at him for a moment, then brought a paw up to rub her eyes. "Mew?" she asked.
"Yeah," Max said. "Mew." He raised a brow and crossed his arms in frustration. "Of course you don't believe me."
"Please," Neb chuckled. "It's not that, trust me." She shook her head and looked back at him. "You're just so strange. I don't know anyone else who wouldn't want to tell people they thought they met Mew."
"Is it strange?" Eleos asked. "I felt his mind was especially odd, but my experience with pokémon is limited." Max suddenly felt like he wasn't in the room at all. Eleos had taken Neb and Cori's full attention as it began discussing him without anyone giving him a considering glance. "His reasoning is most usually outside my comprehension. Could it be cultural, or structural?"
While Eleos seemed fully clinical in its estimations, Neb had a smirk holding back a chuckle. "I think it's just him," she said. Max couldn't tell if that felt more or less like an insult than Eleos's hypothesis. "Although, something tells me even humans considered him strange."
"Yeah," Max scoffed. "I wasn't exactly great at making friends as a human, either." His eyes trained on the floor at his side, he failed to notice the others finally looking at him as if he were part of the conversation again.
"You remembered?!" Cori asked, too excited for Neb's shush to register in time.
It hit Max that he didn't actually have any memories he was drawing that from. "No," he grumbled. Blow after blow, this morning just wasn't going in his favor. He gave up on sitting up and flopped onto his back. "Dammit." He prematurely rubbed the heels of his forepaws into his forehead. "I don't know." He started trying to think of where that knowledge came from, and like clockwork came the headache. "Ugh. I know stuff about it, but I can't remember anything." He let his paws fall to his side and sighed.
"I never found much, either," Eleos said. Max narrowed his eyes and bent his neck half up to glare at it. "This was before you told me you would rather I did not look into your memories without your knowledge."
Max let his head flop back to the ground, "Ow!" just a little too hard.
"We're getting off track," Neb said. "Max?" He growled in acknowledgment. "Would you at least sit up so I can watch for when you stop paying attention?" Another headache threatened to torture him, though this one came from a much more petty source. He reluctantly forced himself up and looked at Neb through half-lidded eyes. "Thank you."
When Max nodded, Neb went on, "Obviously, you need to avoid blacking out. I know you already were, but with how your condition is, I think you should be especially careful." Max nodded, trying his best to rub focus back into his eyes. "Absolutely no distortion floors until you're more stable." Max nodded, grimacing at the very thought of one of those. He definitely had no trouble with that rule. "And I don't want you using that, what did you call it? Awareness."
"What?" Max asked. "Why not?" His mind wandered back to the night he'd discovered it. That connection to the world around him. "Do you have any idea how useful it is?" He had to assume, however, saying he liked using it wouldn't be all too persuasive. "I could blaze through a dungeon with my eyes closed! Shouldn't I be trying to minimize my time in them?"
"You should," Neb said. "But there's more to it than that, and you know it." She kept her expression and tone even, but Max could feel her giving off more tension than she was letting on. "We don't know how it ties to your dungeon sickness yet." Max flinched away; he didn't really have an answer to that. "But we know it's tied to it."
"Well, yeah, it's connected," Max mumbled. "But that doesn't make it dangerous!" Despite drawing a paw up to point at her to support his argument, he felt his confidence faltering. "It's how I fixed my speech, remember?" Neb's expression remained unchanged, so he turned to Eleos for some kind of support.
The psuedo-mander, however, didn't look convinced either. "It is frustrating, yes," Eleos said. "However, do not forget the end to our expedition." Max had to surprise a groan and deflated. "While it felt distinct from blacking out," a glimmer of hope returned, "we cannot let it happen to you again," to die as fast as it came.
"Th-that doesn't mean, look," Max stammered back. Looking at their expressions killed all the hope he could muster; they'd both already decided on the matter. As much as he wanted to accuse them of conspiring behind his back, it was almost definitely his own fault for not paying attention. "It's not…," his mind drifted back to when Lily and Drake had cornered him in the dungeon—a decision made about him without him—, "fair."
For once, he was glad he'd slipped into feral. Complaining about fairness like a child. He shook himself out of his head. It wasn't the same—not by a long shot. They were trying to talk to him about it, cared what he wanted, and the stakes weren't even slightly comparable, but the memory had come nonetheless, and it brought that same feeling of entrapment from before. He could almost feel Sam's bone around his neck.
"Max?" Cori whispered, tapping his shoulder to get his attention.
"P-pichu," he apologized, shaking his head. Still stuck in feral. Max shook his head again, trying to rub some sense back into his head. "S-orry," he whispered. "I got lost in my thoughts again." His gaze ran along the floor in shame. Losing focus again so soon felt rude at this point.
"Max, it's all right," Neb said. A part of him wanted to argue that it was pathetic, but the other knew she wasn't talking about his attention span. "I'm not saying don't use it ever, or don't experiment with it ever." It took him a moment to remember they were talking about his awareness. "Just not while you're in dungeons." Neb's face appeared a foot away from his and made him jump a little bit.
Mercifully, she didn't laugh at him for that. "For now, at least," she offered.
A deep breath in, long breath out. Max tried to recenter himself. In control. He had control. They weren't trying to take it from him. "All right," he said. He forced a sheepish smile in an attempt to look more confident, but it only made him feel more feeble. "Anything else?"
Neb bowed her head and let out a breath of relief. "Thank you," she said. Max narrowed his eyes at her in confusion, but then he felt tension he hadn't even noticed ooze off her. "There is one more thing." He watched her entire countenance change—no different than what he'd seen before, but with a whole new context. Even without actively trying to use it, he felt his surroundings so much more than before. "I'd like to tag along next time."
"Oh," Max said. "Right, you mentioned that before." He tried to ignore the new feeling that came with his constant awareness and act natural. If Neb didn't want him using that in a dungeon, but he couldn't turn it off, it was better if she didn't know. He shook his head and let a relieved smile join him. "Yeah, of course."
"Oh, right!" Cori said, jumping into the air and snapping a paw at the ceiling. "That reminds me!" They looked over at Eleos, then back to Max. "Why don't we let it join the team?"
"Eleos?" Max asked. "Uh, can it?" Signing up didn't require any sort of proof of identity, nothing more than signing your name. "I mean, if it wants, sure?" He shrugged. "What brought this up?"
"My time with Cori yesterday," Eleos said. "We were discussing their position as your teammate and then I had the idea that, with this form, I could perhaps become an official member."
"Wait, what?" Cori said. They turned towards it and crossed their arms. "What do you mean you had the idea?"
Eleos tilted its head and squinted. "I was the one to suggest it," it explained.
"No you weren't!" Cori said. They shook their head and turned to Max. "I said that they probably wouldn't think to verify if someone joining was really a pokémon."
"Right," Eleos said, closing the distance between it and Cori. "And then, I said that I could join the team."
"That's what I was implying!" Cori said.
"Implying is not suggesting," Eleos said.
"It was my idea!"
"If it was your idea, why didn't you say it first?"
"You!" Cori bit back their words.
Max watched on in awe. Extra awareness or not, he'd been with Eleos enough to know it was arguing this for reasons completely divorced from Cori's. It didn't care if it got the credit for the idea. It just wanted to get the facts straight. Of course, it sounded like it was trying to steal Cori's glory because it didn't really get conversation all that well.
Thus, as worked up as it got Cori, Max could only hold back laughter. From what he could hear, Neb had some muffled chuckles of her own. "I-it, I," he stuttered. No, he couldn't say a word. One more would send him fully into the clutches of laughter. For Cori's sake, he had to resist.
Biting his cheek, he gave Cori an encouraging wink and turned to leer at Eleos. "What made you think of joining?" he asked. Eleos tilted its head and looked to the sky to telegraph it was thinking. "Did you suggest it after Cori mentioned it might be possible?"
Eleos pawed at its chin and said, "Yes. Yes, I believe that's what happened."
Max nodded and crossed his arms. "Then they were leading you there," he declared. "Their idea, sor—"
"I told you!" Cori cheered. They bounced and pumped their fist in victory. Eleos watched with confusion while Max and Neb lost the fight against laughter at the same time once and for all.
"Forever
Our love might last
Forever
Will it come to fast"
"Where did you say we were going again?" Max asked. Neb was curious about Eleos, so she'd asked for some time between just the two of them. Cori'd seemed bummed, so Max quickly suggested they go somewhere together. In typical Cori fashion, they went from zero to sixty in as many milliseconds and babbled too fast for Max to make out while dragging him along behind.
Of course, Max didn't mind in the slightest. With a crisis every other day, he hadn't gotten much time to spend with them (outside of a mission). It's weird to say for someone he'd seen almost every day, but somehow, he missed them.
Cori seemed lost in their own thoughts as well; they hadn't even reacted to Max's question, much less answered it. "Cori?" he mumbled, tapping their shoulder.
The touch made Cori jump a bit when they turned to him. "Wh-yeah? What's up?" they asked.
It took a lot of restraint to hold back his chuckle, but Max didn't bother hiding the impish grin. He hadn't meant to spook them, but he didn't super mind that he had. "Where?" he repeated.
"Oh!" Cori sang. "Thro-Yo!" All the surprise had turned back to excitement. They eagerly watched Max's expression for the moment the answer processed for Max so the two could share in the excitement together. Unfortunately, Max could only give optimistic confusion. Cori's fragile exuberance started to crack. "S-sorry, do you not like it there?"
"Uh, Cori," Max mumbled. This needed the gentlest paw, and probably one a lot gentler than Max could manage. "I've never heard of that place in my life." Fear gripped his heart for an instant while he waited for Cori's response.
"Oh," Cori said. Max let out a less than stealthy sigh of relief. They glanced at him for it, but didn't comment on it. "It's a frozen yogurt place themed around professional wrestling." As they explained, Max felt the lightest twinge of apprehension in the back of their neck that only grew stronger when they looked away.
Max nodded along, but turned his head in confusion. "Frozen yogurt?" he asked. Cori suddenly stopped all at once. Their eyes looked off in the distance with the steely gaze of a soul steeped in war. Blood spilled all around them. Without a single idea what caused this or what to do, Max tried to move on as if nothing had happened. "Why—"
"I don't know why they freeze the yogurt!" Cori screamed. They grabbed the top of their head with both paws, trying to excavate whatever horrors befell them. "It's good! It makes it taste good!" They turned to face Max, so he shuffled back and raised his tail to defend himself. "I don't know why! I don't know why they did it! I don't know why it does! It just! Does!"
The two stared each other down for a moment. As much as he wanted to be concerned, Max couldn't help noticing all the sharp, predatory teeth lining his friend's mouth. Even when he was as lucid as could be, instincts hung around in the back of his mind. Asking if they were okay might evade him, but he at least managed to resist shocking them and running. As they recovered breath from their outburst, though, and the deranged look in their eyes faded, it started to feel that little bit easier to consider talking it out.
"Uh," Max mumbled, mostly checking he could talk. "Cori?" The toto blinked a few times, and Max could almost see the reason returning to them drop by drop. They seemed a bit sheepish as time went on, but stood their ground. "What the fuck was that?"
"S-sorry," Cori sputtered. They reached their paw up to the opposite shoulder to scratch at it. A shadow of that distant, war-torn expression hung over them. "I tried to take Eleos there yesterday." They shook their head with bewildered eyes. "I must've tried explaining it for an hour." Both paws went up to clutch their head. "I-I don't know why they freeze the yogurt."
"Nonono," Max sputtered. All but the worst of Max's terror dissolved into sympathy, and he rushed to wrap an arm around them. "Don't let it get to you. It doesn't have an explanation, and it doesn't need one." That damned specter could be impossible to talk to, sometimes. Especially if it came to frivolous stuff that didn't have any particularly great explanations.
Max had long ago vowed against thinking about or using the idiom "Think outside the box" ever again.
"Sorry," Max chuckled. "I probably should've warned you it can be like that." The somewhat forced chuckle breathed a bit of life back into Cori, so Max lightly tapped their back to try and coax even more out. After a few taps, they shook their head and tossed off the rest of their existential terror.
"Thanks," Cori said. Their smile returned and brought Max one of his own. When they straightened out their slouch, Max had to push himself up to his toes to keep his arm over their shoulders until he could pull it away. That left him completely unprepared to balance when Cori turned over to him. Luckily, his tail swooped to the other side to save him before Cori even noticed. "Ready?"
"Mhm," Max said. Hopefully, they didn't notice. He noticed they gave him a side-eye, but beyond that he seemed in the clear. They started off again, and Max followed alongside them. "About how long until we get there?"
"We are!" Cori cheered. A rush of warm air flooded the side Cori had stood, but when he turned, they were gone. With a door a mere few feet away, he had to assume they'd gotten so excited that they forgot to bring him into the place they were bringing him.
With a chuckle and a shake of his head, Max pushed his way into the place and started looking for Cori and taking in the atmosphere. The place looked decent, modeled after a gym more than a restaurant, with a bunch of tables, a small bar, and a boxing ring—what.
Max turned back to the ring to double check, but yep. That was a ring. Cori'd told him the place was themed around professional wrestling, but the sight was still something to behold.
The thought occurred to him to question how the hell professional wrestling was a thing here, but then he caught sight of Cori in the self-serving area. One paw held a bowl roughly the size of their head while the other held down a tap spewing a dark-blue cream Max had to assume was frozen yogurt. A roselia stood at the register, staring at them with a resigned look.
Thinking back, Max remembered the barely averted catastrophe the morning of their first mission and ran to prevent a repeat of the same thing. "Hey, what do I do?" he asked. They seemed to have it under control, but Max stayed on stand-by just in case (and he could've sworn he heard the cashier let out a sigh of relief).
"Fro-yo!" Cori declared, unhelpfully explaining nothing. Regardless, Max nodded along as if that answer helped him. The faucets hung around in a semi-circle with bowls on the side opposite the cashier, so he figured they had to take their fill and pay for it after.
He could wait on getting his own, though, and instead kept a watchful eye on Cori's ever-growing portion. They tilted and moved the bowl with honestly impressive precision that looked completely effortless. Clearly, they were well practiced. The swirl of frozen confection built up past the walls of the container, and Cori showed no sign of even considering stopping. They swirled the incoming treat from the outside back in with a tight spiral that neatly lapped over itself and grew slightly tighter with each layer.
As his worries died in the face of their practiced expertise, Max let his paws fall to his side. He looked over to share a glance with the roselia, but she'd turned her attention to a book on the counter next to her station. The figures on the front looked vaguely familiar, but Max looked away to avoid staring. Since they had it under control, he turned to secure his own portion.
A bowl waited for him set aside from all the rest, and he grabbed it with a smile. Even in their frantic rush, they still managed to be considerate. Max started looking over the flavors, intending to consider every option until he saw strawberry. Not even the possibility of an apple flavor could sway him—apples were his favorite fruit, but apple flavored treats always paled in comparison to strawberry. He kicked a stool under the faucet and hopped up to start pouring his treat into the bowl.
He tried to think of the last time he'd had a treat like this, but the only memory that came was from his time with Neb. The thought of it made him wince. He struggled to believe she didn't know what she was doing when giving him ice cream after watching him scarf down every food he got as fast as possible. Thinking back, it was almost funny, but the roof of his mouth begged to differ, even after all this time.
Shaking his head, he focused back on his bowl. It had almost made it to the rim. He could stop there, but he wanted to see how well he could imitate Cori's technique. He started outside and worked his way in, but it took a great deal more precision than he'd expected. Somehow, he managed to make even the first layer lopsided.
With a lick of embarrassment and worry for spilling it, he let go of the tap and tried to balance just what was left coming out of the hose. Cori's had the symmetry and balance of a perfectly manicured sculpture, while his had the asymmetry and imbalance of a raw granite.
"It's fine, it's fine," he mumbled to himself and went on to the toppings station. Cori and the roselia had started talking about a topic he couldn't make out because he was busy trying to decide if he really wanted to add nuts to this before instead pulling out a scoop of bluk and raspberries.
Comparison was the thief of joy, but Max couldn't help taking in how perfectly Cori had placed their toppings onto their mountain of swirl. Each dusting on one side had a drizzle on the other to keep it from leaning either way.
"Yeah, I don't want to spoil it for you," Cori said. "Sorry, I just like part four a lot." The roselia nodded then politely glanced over to Max to let him into the conversation. Cori followed her lead and beamed an impossibly wider smile at him. "Oh! You're ready?!" They didn't wait for an answer before snatching his bowl up and dropping it on a slab of metal next to theirs.
Before the cashier even read out the weight, Cori tossed exact change onto the counter. "Oh, well, thanks," she mumbled in disbelief as she counted up exactly the price she was about to quote. "Enjoy."
"Thanks!" Cori cheered. "Have fun with Rohan!" That name sounded familiar, but Cori snatched up their bowl and dashed off to a table with it before Max could give it a second thought. He just shared a glance with the chuckling roselia, grabbed his bowl, and tried to catch up with the hyper toto.
They'd picked a table next to the ring facing a… television. The entire place was lined with them, too. Max just hadn't thought to notice. They had electric fridges and stoves, but he hadn't seen stuff like this. Although, if the sight didn't surprise him at first, maybe he'd seen more in his lost memories.
"What's wrong?" Cori asked. Max yanked himself out of his thoughts and took the seat next to them.
"I'm fine," he mumbled. "I just didn't know y'all had these." He nodded to the TV and started digging into his yogurt. Sweet, tangy, delicious (though, the temperature still somewhat scared him to eat).
"Oh, yeah!" Cori said. Even talking didn't stop them from slamming the yogurt down their gullet. They'd had about double Max's portion at the start, but they'd already dug themselves down to meet him. "They dug them up a while ago, but only figured out how to make them consistently recently."
"Dug?" Max mumbled, but shook his head. He had enough on his plate. It was far past time he got a chance to look at his bowl instead, so, he did. He grabbed his spoon to go for another bite and hit something on his way there.
Cori's spoon.
"Hey!" he shouted, but Cori retreated with a spoonful before he could retaliate. It didn't even take a moment's thought to come to the deserved retribution; he lunged for Cori's and scooped out twice as much as Cori stole.
"Hey!" Cori shouted back. Just as they'd done, however, Max had already eaten the misappropriated munchy. "I didn't take nearly that much! No fair!" Max held the spoon in his mouth and turned with a wide grin, relieved to see Cori smiling as well. "I just wanted a taste."
"You could've asked," Max chuckled. A watchful eye caught the pilferer coming for another go, so he smacked his tail right in their way. "What did I just say?" He leaned back with the same grin to see surprise take them over. His block had baffled them too much to notice the question, so he asked it again.
Cori glared at him, trying to hide their smile. Visually, at least, they'd completely flattened their smile, but Max could still sense it on them. They tried to stare him down, but he didn't flinch for an instant. In fact, he smiled a bit wider as he went for another bite (from his own bowl, this time).
Finally, Cori rolled their eyes and chuckled, "Fine. Can I have a taste?"
"Good toto," Max cooed. They tried to glare at him again, but this attempt was much sloppier, an obvious smile tugging at their cheeks. He put his spoon on his chin and looked up in deep consideration. "I suppose you can." He raised his tail to allow entry, but pulled the bowl out of reach when they tried to go for it. "If! You let me have another bite, too."
"You!" Cori shouted, their poorly hidden grin faltering slightly. "You already took twice as much as I did! Don't you think you're pushing it a bit?"
"Yeah, of course," Max said, taking another bite. Oh, were these berries fresh? They certainly tasted fresh. "It's gotten me this far. Why stop now?" After another bite, his own words hit him. The spoonful suddenly didn't taste so great. The blow felt physical, but he tried to shrug it off and nudged his bowl closer to them.
Either unaware or acting like it, Cori mirrored the same with their bowl without another word. They both tried each other's a few more times, an unspoken agreement ensuring either could have more of the other's if desired, but both preferred their own flavors. Although, with how fast Cori ate, Max made sure to grab a few more bites while he still could.
"Oh hey, look!" Cori muffled through a half-full mouth. They used their slobbery spoon to point to the screen opposite their table. "The match is on." Max nodded, a bit less than interested, but then they turned to him with a smirk. "I have a feeling you'll like the next fighter."
That piqued Max's interest enough, but only until he saw the first half of the fighter's name. "C'mon, really?" he chuckled, turning back to his yogurt. "Just because he's a pikachu?"
"She," Cori said, somehow undeterred by his dismissal. The correction sparked enough intrigue for Max to give another glance at the name.
He recognized it. Vaguely. "Libré?" he mumbled to himself. It sounded uncannily familiar, but he couldn't nail down from where. All pokémon memories and knowledge blended together thanks to his dungeon sickness, so he couldn't tell for sure if he recognized her from the human world, or he'd just known about her from here?
"Knew it," Cori giggled. Be it because of his struggle with memory or genuine interest, she'd undeniably sparked his interest, making them right.
Max didn't particularly mind, though. Even though it'd been forgotten memories that caught his eye, he was undeniably interested now. Even from a wide-shot, he could easily see her walk to the stage with a confident swagger that stole his attention. He forgot where they were, too busy looking between her and the much larger image of her opponent, an incineroar.
It nearly made him object—they couldn't possibly be in the same weight class—, but even his own experience in battles proved that size mattered a lot less in this world. Still, it made him all the more excited to see it play out.
The camera switched to a much closer shot of her waving to the crowd, and Max lost himself in her outfit. Having a heart-shaped tail on her mask, even dying (or could it be natural?) her tail to accentuate the shape more, like she drew strength from her femininity. Pokémon didn't care about gender nearly as much as humans, but he knew some of the same attitudes floated around.
Yet, this wrestler flaunted it like a badge of honor. Seeing her brandish it so proudly left Max nearly bursting from excitement, though she couldn't quite think of why. Did he feel seen? Just because she was a pikachu? Then why did he care about her tail?
"Uh, Max?" Cori asked. Even still, Max had trouble pulling himself away from the screen, so they jabbed at his shoulder with their spoon. That finally got him to turn away and look at them. They drew closer with a concern-tinged grin. "You know we're still in public, right?"
It took a moment, but Max's cheeks caught fire when he realized what they meant. "That's not why I was looking!" he screamed in a whisper. The protest only tugged more snickers out of them. Max held his cheeks in his hands, which reminded him he had frozen yogurt to eat. "I'm serious," he mumbled, shoving a melty-spoonful in his mouth.
"Really?" Cori asked. The chuckles still tumbled out, but they at least tried to hold back. "You just like her?"
Max looked back to the screen, but didn't fall into it so much. "I… dunno?" he hummed. "She's, like cool?" That wasn't the most convincing, but he still looked to see if they understood. They did not. "Not just cool, though, it's like… erm." He ate another scoop and pursed his lips to the side. "She's cool in a way that makes me feel… cool?" He shook his head. This barely made any sense to him.
"Encouraging?" Cori offered.
"Yeah?" Max said. Looking up, he saw the incineroar several times her size throw her against the ropes, only for her to launch back and surround him with a web of lightning. Watching her turn it around felt like his success, too.
"Do you relate to her?" Cori asked. Since he wasn't paying attention, they snuck another spoonful out of Max's cup.
"I guess?" Max said. She'd dazed the incineroar and, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, turned to the audience. The view snapped to a closer camera, and Max felt a dash of envy glancing over her body. The tail wasn't the only difference, just the most obvious. The way fat distributed on her body, her softer jawline, all subtle, yet her outfit somehow managed to accentuate every single one. Probably a natural consequence of well fitting clothes.
A deep breath in, Max let out a long, wistful sigh. He didn't give much thought, and near accidentally let the words, "I wish I was her," flow out with her breath. Even when he recognized what he said, he tensed, but he didn't regret saying it, didn't feel the need to correct himself.
"Oh," Cori said. They scooted their chair closer over to his and wrapped an arm around his back. "I get it." Max turned with a brow raised to try and see what exactly they got. "Is that why you don't like your tail?"
"What?" Max hissed—how did they know?! He jerked away and pulled his tail around to hide it from sight. "There's nothing wrong with my tail."
Cori started to object, glancing at the now hidden tail, but caught themself and pat Max on the back, instead saying, "Nevermind, sorry."
The smile they had, it was a comforting one, but it felt like they were trying to hide 'knowing' something. Max shook it off, though, and went back to his frozen yogurt. He'd barely made it halfway through. "No, it's all right," he sighed. "Sorry, I just, like, don't really talk about this kinda thing."
"Hey, it's all right!" Cori said. Max felt the need to squirm, but tried to eat it away. "I mean, I kinda figured as much after Neb called you a guy."
"Well—," Max started, trying to protest before giving it up for another spoonful. "I don't think it's that," he mumbled. Sure, being called a guy made him viscerally angry, but he didn't know why. "I mean, like, who wouldn't kinda prefer to be a girl?"
"A guy," Cori said.
Max turned to glare at them. "Well, I'm a guy, so," he said. He turned back to his yogurt, mostly so he didn't have to keep up the eye contact. "Clearly, there's a flaw in your reasoning." Despite his denial, though, he couldn't deny the swell in his heart. Ignore it, sure, he planned on that, but he at least had to admit it was there.
"She's just cool," he resolved with a shake of his head. "No need to overthink it. Right?" After a funny look Max chose to ignore, Cori nodded along. "It's a different kind of feminine, and I guess it's refreshing to see." Definitely no point overthinking it. "It's being strong in a feminine way, right? Not really being manly… I guess?" Yeah, he'd leave it at 'she's cool.'
"Butch," Cori said.
"Right!" Max said, snapping his nubbin-fingers. "Thanks, I couldn't remember the word." Turning back to the screen, the incineroar had Libre in a tight hold, his arm locked around her neck and braced against the ground. He couldn't help a slight gasp of worry. Maybe he was getting a bit too into it. Changing the subject could help. "Is that something she said she wanted to be?" Completely new subject right there.
"Butch?" Cori asked. Max nodded. Luckily for Cori, he couldn't bring himself to turn away from the screen, because otherwise he would've seen their little grin. "Well, not exactly. It was probably staged, but one time an interviewer asked her, 'what's the deal with the whole girl thing?' and she threw him into the lake."
"Oh, that's interesting," Max mumbled. He could process the words later—he'd just noticed that her tail was completely free, and she was right next to the ropes. The ref had already hit the mat twice. He raised his paw for the third one—the one that would decide the match—but right as he started to throw it down, she hooked her tail around the bottom rope and threw herself through them.
Max hopped onto his chair, cheering, "YES!" Social awareness be damned, he was too invested. The incineroar had tried to hold on until she yanked him halfway into them with her. He let go, which gave her just enough mobility to grab the rope hooked under his arms. Almost directly between the two poles, the ropes had plenty of elasticity to stretch before snapping back to launch both of them back.
On the way back, however, Libré grabbed onto the middle rope and spun up to land onto the top. Incineroar lay dazed in the middle of the mat, so she threw her fist in the air once, twice, thrice—the crowd cheering the second half of her name—and threw herself into the air. At the peak of her jump, electricity had started to crackle around her, and a cone of lightning wrapped around her as she fell. Her form looked like a shadow surrounded by bursting light when she landed elbow first onto her opponent with a shocking blast that even made the camera fuzz.
"Pika-chu!" Max cheered. He nearly threw himself at Cori, babbling, "Did you see that?! She—"
Cori held his mouth shut while failing to keep a calm expression. "Max," they whispered. "You're not talking right."
Excitement to panic, Max threw his paws over his mouth (and, incidentally, Cori's paw). He turned half around to see the roselia entirely disinterested looking into her book and let out a sigh of relief. "Did," he mumbled, checking he could still talk. Since he could, he grabbed Cori's paw and pulled it off his maw. "Did you see that?!"
Cori nodded their head with a chuckle. "Yeah, I was watching," they said. "I knew you'd like her!"
"Well, yeah," Max said. His mind loitered back to earlier in the conversation, but he tried not to dwell on it. Calm down, he needed to calm down. He already felt a flood of warmth in his cheeks from his little outburst, not to speak of how disastrous it could've been had the cashier heard his slip.
Aside from that, though, he cared surprisingly little being so excited around Cori. Maybe because they scarcely hid theirs from him (they'd explode if they tried). "When did you get into this stuff?" he asked.
Cori shrugged and said, "I just came here for the yogurt." Right, yogurt. Max turned back to the melted fourth that he still had left. "The matches are fun to watch, at least. Oh!" They turned to point at the ring. "They let people use that, too! Just gotta clean it after." From the way they rolled their eyes, Max could only guess that people didn't tend to clean it very thoroughly like they should've.
"Oh, all right," Max said, keeping his tone even but not managing to stop an ear from sagging. He'd hoped they could tell him a bit more. "Don't know much more about Libré, then?" With another bite, he made sure not to show too much interest or hope in the question.
"Not much more than this season," Cori said; Max couldn't hide his excitement in time. When Cori saw it, though, he was glad he hadn't, since it made them equally as excited to share. "She's only been in for a season or two before, but no one'd call her a rookie." On the screen, she stood (on a step-ladder) on the side of the ref opposite the barely conscious incineroar. "They release the roster about a month before starting a season, and a lot of people overlooked her."
Even knowing the outcome, Max couldn't help a little cheer when the ref held Libre's paw up, declaring her the victor. "Well, sort of," Cori said with a chuckle at Max's celebration. "Most people were at worst disinterested, but a few thought she was gonna wash out." A sneer forced itself on Max's face. "But then, she managed to sweep her first bracket. Only one match went to three rounds."
"She's a champ?!" Max asked. His paws balled up next to his chin, and his eyes were wide in anticipation.
For a moment, Cori paused with a twist in their lips, inadvertently revealing the news they meant to share gently. "Not yet," they said. Max slouched a bit, but his smile stayed wide, so Cori let out a sigh of relief. "She's gotten really close for someone who's joined so recently, though. Apparently, most new wrestlers don't make it past their first tournament."
"Makes sense," Max said with a nod. "Makes for a better story." Being so caught up in the excitement, it helped to remind himself these matches were staged. "What else is on TV?"
Cori tilted their head at him, asking, "What, didn't you have these as a human?"
Max squinted at them. "Well, yeah," he said. "That, that's why I'm asking?" He chuckled a bit. "I'm curious what kinda stuff pokémon make."
"Oh," Cori said, understanding flashing in their eyes. "You mean, like, beside the stuff that's been dug up?" There it was, 'dug up' showing up again, but no. Max was relaxing. He wasn't going to question it. He forced himself to nod casually and not. Think about it. "Well, kinda the same stuff. Shows, cartoons, and sometimes they'll try to recreate the human stuff. Usually only with pokémon, though."
This wasn't helping Max's 'don't ask about it' goal. It was okay, it was fine. He just needed to make sure not to ask, "Human stuff?" His eye twitched as he cursed himself internally.
"Yeah?" Cori said. They seemed about as confused as Max felt at this point. "You know, the stuff they dug up?"
Oh no. Oh no, it was starting to make sense, now. "The stuff you dug up," Max started. "It was all human stuff?" Cori nodded slowly. "TV shows?"
"Well, and the TVs," Cori said. "And other stuff, too. Books, art, oh!" They pointed a finger to the Roselia. "She's actually reading one!" He couldn't help himself; Max turned, fighting the impulse all the way, and only prevailing against the temptation to look after he'd read 'Adventure' in a familiar font. Cori had said, 'Part four,' too.
So that's why the people on it looked familiar.
All that remained in his bowl had melted, so Max chugged it like a spirit (and found the motion unnerving in how familiar it felt). "I'm not thinking about that right now," he said, wiping his paw across his mouth. "Y'all're digging human things up. Sure. That's just a normal part of the world I am going to accept."
Cori stared at him with concern for a bit. They didn't know how to respond, but eventually decided to ask, "You didn't know?"
"I did not," Max said with a subtle shake of his head. Already, his mind was wandering to what other human 'artifacts' they'd discovered, so he cinched his eyes shut in an attempt to close the matter. "So, TV. What else do you like to watch?"
"Wh-huh?" Cori stammered. They still stared at him with obvious concern, but it didn't take much thought to recognize Max wanted to move on. "Well, not a lot?" Even without looking, Max felt them roll their shoulders in an attempt to loosen up. "I've only really ever seen them here."
A breath of relief made its way out of Max's lungs. They did it. They'd moved on. "So, they're still hard to get your paws on?" he wondered.
"Well, sort of?" Cori said, scratching the back of their head. "More just, no one's really interested in them." Max looked over and raised a brow. "I mean, there are, like, archaeologists, but most people just think it's kinda weird."
"Really?" Max asked. Cori nodded. "Huh, I remember people caring a lot more about them." He had to wonder if pokémon simply had different taste in media.
"Well, it's all still pretty new," Cori said. "No one liked the books and stuff for a while, but after the whole library thing, well, they weren't as afraid of them." They tilted their head, one eye half closed in thought. "I think?" They shrugged and let out a chuckle. "I didn't really pay much attention to that unit in school." School, of course they learned it in school.
While Max's head shook itself in disbelief, failing to process the veritable dump of existentially threatening knowledge, a fresh idea popped Cori's eyes open in excitement. "Oh, did you want to go see some of that stuff? Maybe it'll jog your memory!" Cori offered. "The library has a whole section for that stuff!"
A slight wince of disgust forced its way past Max's defenses. No, he didn't particularly want to remember yet. Too much on his mind already. Still, he was curious what he could find. Plus, imagining looking through it with Cori made it a lot easier to relax. They'd be there if something came up. "Do they have any music?" he asked. Of all the entertainment he barely remembered, he'd always missed music the most, somehow.
"Oh, they don't let you listen to it in the shelves," Cori mumbled, eyes scanning below them while each arm tried to hide behind its twin. They'd tried. "But you just have to reserve a room."
Max nodded with a smile. "All right," he said. Grabbing their bowl and putting it in his own, he hopped off his chair and headed to the trash. "Let's go. Sounds fun." Cori zoomed right next to him, spewing some incomprehensible excitement, and it only made Max smile wider. With the world turning around him, even against him, at least he had Cori by his side.
"But right now I am with you, and
Together we can make it through
But right now I am with you, and
Together we can make it through"
"Thanks for the help, Cori," Max grunted. He'd just dropped his own box and went to help Cori with theirs. Apparently, the library let you check out old records and the tech to use them (within reason). They were recreations, so Max didn't really see the point in returning them, but he might've had he listened to the librarian's speech explaining exactly that instead of trying to think about how to bluff his way as a human expert rather than a human.
Cori's box was noticeably bigger than his, but the weights were mostly comparable. When checking them out, Max had considered only how heavy they felt in the moment, and not how heavy they would be after carrying them all the way to his house. Despite his own exhaustion, he went to the side opposite Cori and helped them take it the rest of the way in.
Thanks to his help, they managed to work together and put it down instead of drop it. Cori took three steps toward Max's haystack on the opposite side of the room, then collapsed in the middle of it. As much as he wanted to do the same, Max had to open up the box and peak inside.
"What," Cori panted, "are those, again?"
"Records," Max said, barely even looking Cori's way. He'd picked every single one out, held each one in his paws, even tipped one out to make sure the inner sleeve really contained one, yet still couldn't believe it. "They're like, the book version of music, I guess." Honestly, that analogy didn't even make sense to him, but he was too excited to think of a better one. "Oh, this is the one we listened to!" He pulled out a blue sleeve with a twice bent pipe in the sky and showed it to Cori.
They looked up at it and nodded. "It was kinda weird," they said. "Cool, though." They flopped their head back down and seemed to meet the edge of sleep. Seeing that, Max felt his own exhaustion creeping up on him. The record felt too heavy to lift back into the box (he still wasn't used to them being so close to his height), so he leaned it against it instead.
"I think you have it right," Max said. Cori mumbled back at him, acknowledging the conversation rather than adding to it. Max finished his own thought by ambling over and falling down next to them. This got him little more than an eye looking his way. He didn't mind. Taking a deep breath, he pulled an arm up and laid it over Cori's back. "Thank you."
This time, Cori mustered up the strength to tilt their head and wait for an explanation. The sight made Max's smile grow just enough that he felt it himself. "Today," he explained. As much as he usually hated eye contact, he didn't mind it so much in that moment. "I can't remember the last time I had such a simple, fun one." He tried to ignore the wording.
Cori smiled back and said, "I'm glad!" They reached their own paw up and tugged Max in. He squirmed a bit, but only because they touched a little bit too close to a tickle-spot. "I had a lot of fun, too!"
Before Max could say more, the door opened. He tilted his head back just enough to see Eleos sauntering in with a tired Neb behind. While Eleos looked not even the slightest bit plussed, Max felt a sense of kinship with the exhaustion in Neb's eyes. Definitely the look of someone who'd spent an entire day with the specter.
He would know.
"I've brought your demon back to you," Neb said. Not even his fatal curiosity could convince Max to prod her about how she'd spent her day. At least Eleos didn't seem upset, despite Neb saying 'demon' with more malice than Max had ever heard from her. Neb finally shook herself out of her daze enough to look over at Max and Cori. "You two look like you've had full days."
"Yeah!" Cori said. In an instant, Max was alone on the floor as they hopped up in their excitement. "We had a great time!" Max figured he could fill in as needed and let Cori gush about the day's events a bit, though they hadn't gotten past entering Thro-Yo before Eleos invaded their personal space. Cori flinched back. "Wha—AH!"
Eleos snatched their tongue out from their open mouth and inspected it. "Your tongue," it mused. "Why is it purple?" It looked up to Cori for an answer, even pulling it to the side to show it to them. Luckily, it let go of the tongue before Max had to make it. Cori jerked back, holding a paw over their tongue to protect it.
"Is Max's the same?" Neb asked. As Eleos's curiosity turned to him, Max turned his ire to her.
"Do not!" Max shouted. He hopped back and showed his tongue (partially behind his paw for protection) before Eleos could get to him. "There! You saw it!" That seemed to appease Eleos, which gave Max a healthy dose of relief.
"Oh! It was probably the yogurt!" Cori said. Max nodded in support, but didn't take his eyes off Eleos. He doubted his tongue could handle the treatment it had given Cori's.
"Oh yeah," Max said. Eleos seemed uninterested, so he let himself relax the slightest bit. "I had strawberry, and they had blueberry." Hopefully the explanation would sate Eleos's intrigue. Although, Max lost himself so much in that concern that he failed to consider others.
"Oh?" Neb asked. Max looked at her grinning with his head tilted. Bad news. He'd seen that look plenty of times before. "But isn't purple a mix of red and blue?"
Of course this would happen. Max let out a resigned sigh. He and Cori knew the truth—Neb could believe what she wanted. He didn't care what she thought. Yet, when he rolled his eyes at her, he caught a glimpse of Eleos and froze. For a very obvious reason he wanted to pretend didn't exist, he very much cared if Eleos thought he and Cori had shared a kiss. Already, the gears had began to turn behind Eleos's expression. Fate sealed, Max buried his fallen visage in his disgrace sodden paws.
"You tasted each other's?" Eleos asked. Max nearly collapsed in relief. Finally. Finally, fate had spared him.
"Wow"
